Shall We Dance?
by ncisduckie
Summary: Endymion finds Serenity alone in the garden and offers to dance. SilMil. ONESHOT.


**Shall We Dance?**

**A/N: *Peeks in* Hi, yes, am I still allowed in the fandom? Long time no speak?**

**This is dedicated to the undescribable floraone. If you haven't read any of her work yet-please do so at your earliest convenience. You won't regret it. **

**Flora wanted: "dancing but throw in some mutual pining" and I had to reign myself in from trying to write a sweeping epic about dancing through many different lives. So, for now, it's just a SilMil dance. Alas. Please enjoy! **

**. . .**

The music from the ballroom wafted out to the courtyard, maintaining only the faintest resemblance of the waltz playing inside.

Tonight was the close of the New Earth Festival, the Moon's tradition during rotation cycles where the Earth hid from the night sky. It wasn't like the Earth, where the Moon hid every 28 days in a regular cycle. The Earth's phases were more irregular and it wasn't every cycle that the planet disappeared from view. So, when it did, they celebrated.

Of course, the Moon Kingdom embraced any opportunity to celebrate. Especially at the castle. The Queen was lavish and indulgent despite her ironhanded reign. The former was simply her personality. The latter was borne out of necessity-especially with the continual threat of Earthern invasion. The celebrations morphed into praise that the Moon avoided war for another Earthern cycle. But they were contrived sources of joy as of late. It was the only time the Sailor Guardians were unable to watch the Earth for signs of a potential assault.

Princess Serenity, the Moon's crown heir, found the faux celebrations exhausting. She was supposed to smile and be polite and nod politely when her advisors blathered on about the rising evil about Earth and how none of its inhabitants could be trusted. It was worse when she had to dance with them.

Their tongues would become looser and their inhibitions lessened. So her partners were often awful, mean men who drank so much they didn't think twice about groping the young princess when her mother wasn't looking. It would be an understatement to say that Serenity was very, very tired of these festivals.

She'd been hiding outside since the formal introductions, content to sit in the garden and listen to the music. The sea of white flowers offered their companionship as the princess hummed along to the familiar chords. She preferred the brilliant red roses she'd seen on the Earth Kingdom's grounds-but there was no way to vocalize the preference to her mother without admitting that she'd circumvented proper decorum as Princess and visited the opposing dynasty's castle.

It was the Earth's New Year Celebration. The Moon, for all its love of celebration, didn't observe the same calendar system as Earth and observed, instead, the Lunar New Year. It made the perfect cover because her guardians expected her to flee during official celebrations. They never suspected that she would whisk herself away on what the Moon Kingdom considered another day.

The Earth Kingdom maintained the same love of lavish parties as the Moon and maintained the same love of dancing an gossip. Though she was hidden in a careful disguise and trusted her identity wouldn't be revealed, it didn't stop the same things she detested on the Moon from happening on Earth. In fact, the men seemed louder, drunker, and far more handsy (though perhaps that was simply because they hadn't the slightest clue that they were, in fact, groping royalty from the kingdom they so detested). It was then that she escaped to the garden, vowing never to let herself indulge the urge to visit the blue planet she orbited.

However, the vow disappeared from her thoughts as she continued to get lost in the garden, weaving through a maze of colorful blooms until she found herself in a sea of red, red roses. The biggest she'd ever seen. It was there she met-

"Princess, we need to stop meeting like this." A voice wafted in from the side entrance to the garden, the side nowhere near the night's festivities. The new visitor had come from elsewhere.

In any other circumstance, the princess might have been scared that it was an intruder. Or worse, one of the men from inside, wanting to test her limits out from the watchful eyes of the Queen. However, Serenity recognized the voice's owner.

She smiled, pushing herself up from the bench and brushing imaginary dirt from her skirts. "Are you following me, Your Highness?" Serenity teased, watching as Prince Endymion, the Earth's crown prince, emerged from the shadows with a red rose in hand.

"I would not dare; in fact, I'm here to spy on you."

In fact, that was exactly what he had told his parents that he would be doing tonight. Spying on the Moon Kingdom. It was a poor excuse given that the Moon's New Earth festivities took place during the Earth's Full Moon. Technically, there was no reason to escape to the Moon itself to spy when any of the seers employed by the crown could watch for the possibility of war without any sort of obstruction.

But what his parents forgot to pay attention to, was his sole gain. While the princess's first trip to Earth was fuelled by nothing more than curiosity, the Prince made his first trip that night with a goal in mind. He'd only been on the Moon for minutes and he was already able to accomplish said goal.

Serenity grinned; it was the same excuse she'd tried to give him when he caught her in what turned out to be his private garden. Except, all of her sneaking around considered, she was a terrible liar. "Oh, really? What have you gleaned from tonight's festivities?"

He smiled softly as he approached her. "There's a lonely princess in need of a dance partner."

Serenity blinked innocently. She swiveled back to the ballroom, pretending to look for another princess. "Is there? You best find her and remedy such a tragic situation."

Endymion bowed and extended a hand out to her. "Then, shall we dance?"

"Out here?" She hesitated, her heart jumping somewhere between her throat and chest. The last time, they spent their time talking idly about nothing that mattered. If they danced...if they danced, would he be able to hear her pounding heart? And if he could, would he think she was only a silly teen, captivated by any handsome face?

"We could go inside if you preferred."

He made the offer but had no intentions on seeing it through. His only protection for his identity that night was a simple white mask against his eyes. Besides, if they went inside, it would be likely he'd have to share the Princess with any of the other dancers in the ballroom. He was an only child; he was unaccustomed to sharing.

Serenity briefly chewed on her lip before accepting his hand. She pointedly ignored the warm tickle that crept up her arm as she held his hand. "I'm only agreeing because now you will be unable to accomplish your goal of spying," she informed matter-of-factly.

"On the contrary, I have seen all I needed," Endymion joked, pulling her close. He placed his free hand against her back, right where the beading of her dress met her back.

Without giving her time to think too hard about the situation, he led her into their first dance with surprising ease. Both had taken lessons due to their royal upbringing but were unpracticed for different reasons. Serenity had been quite miserable in her dancing lessons, though she wished she could dance better simply because she loved watching partners course across a ballroom. Quite the opposite, Endymion was top-rate and learned every dance he was taught quickly, though he despised dancing at formal events and preferred staying off the floor for as long as he could.

He quickly discovered that dancing wasn't nearly that bad when he had such a lovely partner in his arms. In fact, he might even qualify it as enjoyable.

The two danced, maintaining unbroken eye contact as Endymion spun Serenity across the garden. She didn't even get mixed up and step on his toes as she'd done with each and every one of her other partners. Instead, she found herself watching the Prince with unguarded awe as they danced together for the first time.

Endymion was captivated by her stare, noting that her cheeks flushed prettily as the song shifted from the waltz she had been originally listening to into a less formal dance that allowed him to pull her a bit closer. They continued dancing, maintaining a comfortable silence between them as to not risk breaking the magic that had seemed to fall over them.

Very briefly, he wondered what it would be like to kiss her.

Endymion's breath hitched as he was forced out of his dreamy haze. Sometime in the passing minutes, they had abandoned any traditional dance position and pressed together in a comfortable embrace. Her hands had tied themselves around his neck and his rested at her lower back as they swayed off-beat to the music from inside.

He averted his eyes and instead focused on her golden locks. "This has to be the last song," he whispered into her hair, unable to meet her eyes.

They needed to stop before he did something stupid.

She nodded and buried her face into his chest, taking in a deep breath. He smelled of roses. "Right," she promised.

It took everything in her to hold back the tears springing to her eyes. He had to have figured it out, which is why suggested they stopped. It had to be the look on her face; her guardians always said they could read her emotions like an open book. She pressed her lips together and unwittingly pulled her grasp on Endymion tighter. This last dance had to be one to remember because there was no way he would ever dance with her again, not knowing that she had very stupidly developed feelings for him.

Not only was she his enemy by all technicality, but she was sure her mother had said that the Earth's prince was betrothed at birth. He already had someone in his future. Someone that was not her.

Endymion also tightened his embrace, burying his face in Serenity's hair. If he didn't look at her shining blue eyes or her beautiful face, perhaps he could stop this feeling that bloomed somewhere deep in his heart. It was a feeling he was unfamiliar with, but he _did_ know this feeling would only lead somewhere it shouldn't. Especially not with the princess of the Moon Kingdom. Especially since, like him, she probably had a betrothed for when she was of age. Except, at that moment, he couldn't bring himself to care about the impending disaster of falling in love with Serenity. Even if she could never love him back.

They danced until the only music playing was the whisper left lingering in their heads as they ignored the fact the song ended long ago. It was just the two of them, swaying sweetly in a garden of white flowers, wishing that the moment would never end.

**~FIN~**

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